The original Midland Hotel was built in 1849 to the designs of Edmund Sharpe and Edward Paley.
It served as the railway hotel for the new line to the resort and was originally known as the North Western Hotel. 
For those who saw the Morecambe Promenade short film by the Blackburn firm of Mitchell and Kenyon, filmed in 1901 and broadcast on BBC2 recently, you would have just seen this building at the end of Stone Jetty.
The current Midland Hotel was built to the designs of Sir Oliver Hill and opened in July 1933. 
The height of fashionable art deco design, the building incorporated the work of well-known modern artists and craftspeople such as Eric Gill, Eric Ravilious and Marion Dorn.
It was built just behind the original hotel which was not cleared away until the new site was ready. 
In November 1933, Country Life published an article about this splendid new hotel. 
It started: "The enterprising directors of the London, Midland and Scottish have broken clean away from the tradition not only of the railway but of English hotels as a genus, in turning loose Mr Oliver Hill with his team of artists and manufacturers on their new hotel at Morecambe.
"The result is something that at first sight hits one agreeably in the pit of the stomach."
So what did these artists do at the Midland? 
Many will know of Eric Gill's low relief sculpture of 'Hospitality' or Nausicaa welcoming Odysseus.
Amazing
He also produced the carved and painted medallion of Triton in the ceiling of the stairwell, the highly stylised map of the coast with the hotel's location and various other features throughout and outside the hotel. 
In the round café at the north end of the hotel Eric Ravilious and his wife Tirzah Garwood produced an amazing decorative scheme on the walls representing 'Morning and Evening'.
Sadly it did not last long at all – the surface blistered and was damaged beyond repair. 
In true art deco style, all the elements of the hotel's interior design were seen as part of the overall scheme.
Marion Dorn's stunningly bold hand-tufted Wilton rugs, the string coloured Glamis fabrics by Donalds and even the grand pianos were designed to fit the scheme. These were built by Strohmenger to Hill's design in 'ingenious semi-circular cases of walnut and macassar ebony'.
Country Life's reviewer was completely bowled over by their visit. They concluded by saying: "This building is obviously the latest thing in construction, materials, and decoration.
"It is exquisite, nothing in the least cheap or shoddy about it. Everything is of the best."
It became a very popular, fashionable place to stay. However, during World War Two, the Midland Hotel was requisitioned for use as a Royal Air Force hospital. 
New recruits on early training in Morecambe also received inoculations there. 
As holiday-makers started to head abroad and the package holiday was born, this building started to see a shift in its fortunes. 
In the recent past, the hotel has suffered a chequered history and now all hopes are pinned on new owners, Manchester-based developers, Urban Splash.
Building work on the 21-month scheme to redevelop the hotel is expected to begin in early spring.
The plan is to create 46 rooms of luxury accommodation that will be available to the public for around £90–£100 per night.
The development has attracted £4million funding from the North West Development Agency and a further unsecured sum of around £600,000 will come from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with Urban Splash adding £2.7million towards the scheme.
Urban Splash has been working with London-based building conservation specialist, Avanti architects, and Liverpool-based Union North architects, who specialise in restoration, on plans for the building.

r Thanks to Sue Ashworth, collections manager at Lancaster City Museum for help with the